{"id":115289,"date":"2021-02-27T11:00:27","date_gmt":"2021-02-27T03:00:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.namnewsnetwork.org\/?p=115289"},"modified":"2021-02-27T11:00:30","modified_gmt":"2021-02-27T03:00:30","slug":"south-american-cocaine-worth-billions-seized-in-germany-and-belgium-one-of-largest-single-seizure-worldwide","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/?p=115289","title":{"rendered":"South American cocaine ‘worth billions’ seized in Germany and Belgium; one of largest single seizure worldwide"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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The cocaine discovered in Germany was hidden in more than 1,700 tins of wall filler
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\u00a0HAMBURG (Germany), Feb 27\u00a0(NNN-AGENCIES)\u00a0—<\/strong>Customs authorities in Germany and Belgium have seized a record amount of cocaine – more than 23 tonnes – that was destined for the Netherlands.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

German officials discovered 16 tonnes in five shipping containers that had arrived in the port of Hamburg from Paraguay earlier this month.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Police in the Netherlands were notified and a further 7.2 tonnes of cocaine was seized at the Belgian port of Antwerp.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

German officials said the cocaine had a street value of billions of euros.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A 28-year-old man suspected of involvement in the trafficking of the drugs has been arrested in the Netherlands, Dutch police said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The two raids, which took place earlier this month, resulted in the seizure of an “enormous amount of cocaine”, customs officials said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In Antwerp, the drug was hidden in a container filled with wooden blocks from Panama.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The cocaine found in the northern German city of Hamburg was concealed in tins of wall filler, which had entered Europe on a container ship from Paraguay.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Customs officers decided to take a closer look at the Paraguayan containers after noticing “clear irregularities” with some of the contents – tin cans that were meant to be filled with putty.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Beyond a layer of genuine goods, packed just behind the container door, numerous tin cans were in fact filled with other goods,” officials said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Investigators then ordered the containers to be unloaded, and found cocaine stashed away in more than 1,700 tins.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“This is the largest amount of cocaine ever seized in Europe and one of the largest single seizures worldwide,” German customs said, referring to the Hamburg haul alone.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“We are estimating a street sales value of between \u20ac1.5bn and \u20ac3.5bn ($1.8bn and $4.2bn) for the 16 tonnes,” Hamburg customs official Rene Matschke said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hamburg is Europe’s third biggest port, and the largest in Germany.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Paraguay has been a key transit country for drugs for years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Powerful drug trafficking gangs from neighbouring Brazil, such as First Capital Command (PCC), have expanded across the border into Paraguay and are running many of the smuggling operations there.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The drugs are often shipped in containers from Paraguay to port cities in Europe.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This latest haul, however, is the biggest ever discovered in Europe.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In October, 11.5 tonnes of cocaine was discovered hidden in scrap metal containers that had arrived in Antwerp from South America.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In August 2019, customs officials at the port of Hamburg seized about 4.5 tonnes of cocaine from a shipment that was listed as soya beans. Officials said at the time that the haul could have been worth up to \u20ac1bn, depending on its purity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

High-purity cocaine can be cut up or divided, with different substances added to increase profits when sold on the street.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Last year, about 102 tonnes of cocaine was intercepted while heading for Europe. — NNN-AGENCIES
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The cocaine discovered in Germany was hidden in more than 1,700 tins of wall filler \u00a0HAMBURG (Germany), Feb 27\u00a0(NNN-AGENCIES)\u00a0—Customs authorities in Germany and Belgium have seized a record amount of cocaine – more than 23 tonnes – that was destined for the Netherlands. German officials discovered 16 tonnes in five shipping containers that had arrived […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":115291,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[208,209],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/115289"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=115289"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/115289\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/115291"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=115289"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=115289"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=115289"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}